Protester shot at

Tamluk, July 10: A 22-year-old youth who had protested alleged extortion, drinking sessions and gambling by a section of suspected Trinamul workers in East Midnapore’s Contai was shot at last night.

A doctor at the Calcutta nursing home where Sheikh Saddam, who owns a meat shop, has been admitted said the bullet had grazed the youth’s chest and no surgery was required.

Saddam’s father Rukuddin has lodged a police complaint against 10 persons, of whom three have been arrested. Rukuddin and some local residents alleged that those who attacked Saddam after calling him out of the house were Trinamul workers.

A Trinamul general secretary in East Midnapore, Mahmud Hossain, said: “We don’t want to go into whether they (accused) are Trinamul workers or not. We demand that they be punished irrespective of political colour.”